The United States will be able to use planned defence facilities in Western Australia that are to help deliver nuclear-powered submarines under the trilateral AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Sunday.Australia will spend A$12 billion ($8 billion) to upgrade facilities at the Henderson shipyard near Perth
The U.S. State Department has removed a statement on its website that it does not support Taiwan independence, among changes that the island's government praised on Sunday as supporting Taiwan.The fact sheet on Taiwan retains Washington's opposition to unilateral change from either Taiwan or from China, which claims the democratically governed island as its own.
President Joe Biden is set to ban new offshore oil and gas development across 625 million acres (250 million hectares) of U.S. coastal territory, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.The ban, to be announced on Monday, rules out the sale of drilling rights in stretches of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and the eastern Gulf of Mexico, said the report
A climate change protest off the coast of Australia's New South Wales State forced an inbound ship to turn back from the country's largest terminal for coal exports on Sunday, the port operator said.New South Wales police said 170 protesters were arrested on Sunday for refusing to move from the shipping channel near the Port of Newcastle.
A boat carrying members of the Rohingya community from Myanmar has sunk near the Thai-Malaysian border, with hundreds missing, seven dead and 13 rescued, the Malaysian maritime agency said on Sunday.Rescuers were combing an area of 170 square nautical miles near Langkawi Island on Saturday after a boat with 300 people on board left Myanmar's Rakhine state three days earlier
Australia will not commit troops in advance to any conflict, Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said on Sunday, responding to a report that the Pentagon has pressed its ally to clarify what role it would play if the U.S. and China went to war over Taiwan.Australia prioritises its sovereignty and "we don't discuss hypotheticals"
Japan will export used navy destroyers to the Philippines to strengthen its deterrence against China's maritime expansion, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Sunday, as the two U.S. allies increase cooperation to counter Beijing.The export plan involves six Abukuma-class destroyer escorts in service with the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force for more than three decades, the Japanese daily said
Taiwan's coast guard held drills with the military on Sunday to better practice joint operations in the face of what the government in Taipei says is a growing "grey zone" threat from China, which claims the island as its own territory.Democratically governed Taiwan has repeatedly complained about activities such as undersea cable cutting and sand dredging by China around the island
Three Chinese nationals were missing from Ghanaian waters and believed to have been kidnapped after a "suspected pirate attack" on their Ghanaian-registered fishing vessel, the West African nation's military said on Saturday.Seven armed people boarded the ship and fired warning shots shortly before 6 p.m.
New Zealand said the Chinese navy conducted a live-fire exercise in international waters near the Pacific nation on Saturday, a day after it held a similar drill between Australia and New Zealand that forced airlines to divert flights."Reporting from the New Zealand Defence Force that the Chinese naval Task Group has advised of a second window for live firing activity, on Saturday afternoon
The Philippines said on Saturday it has suspended a scientific survey in the South China Sea after two of its fisheries vessels faced "harassment" and aggressive behaviour from China's coast guard and navy.Manila and Beijing have had a series of escalating confrontations in disputed waters of the South China Sea.